Antifriction-hinge.



UNITED STATES PATENT Curios,

WILLIAM H. HART, OF NEWV BRITAIN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE STANLEYWORKS, OF SAME PLACE.

ANTIFRICTIO N-HINGE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 639,565, dated December19, 1899. Application filed May 1,1899. Serial No. 715,254. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM H. HART, a citizen of the United States,residing in New Britain, in the county of Hartford and State ofConnecticut,have invented certain new and useful Improvements inAntifriction-I-linges, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in antifriction-hinges; and themain object of my improvement is toinclose within the knuckles theindependent casings in which the balls take their bearings.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation of my hingewith the leaves opened. Fig. 2 is a vertical section of a portion of theright-hand leaf through its axis in a plane parallel to the face of theleaf. Fig. 3 is a similar View showing a modified construction.

The hinge illustrated is of the class which has more than twoknuckles,and consequently the leaves are put together by inserting oneknuckle between two adjoining knuckles and then inserting the pintle.lVhile this style of hinge is the one to which myinvention willgenerally be applied, some features of my invention are applicable to aloose-joint or twoknuckle hinge,in which one knuckle is slippedendwiseintoplaceoverthepintle. Thehinge shown in Fig. 1 is for bothright and left hand doors, the middle knuckle 4 being provided withantifriction devices at each end, whereby when the right-hand leaf A issecured to the casing the weight of the door is transmitted through theleaf B to the antifriction devices at the upper end of the knuckle 4,whereas if the left-hand leaf B should be secured to the casing theweight of the (1001' would be transmitted through the leaf A to thelower end of said knuckle 4. "While I prefer to have the two sets ofantifriction devices in the opposite ends of one knuckle, it is onlyessential when two sets are used that they shall be oppositely disposedin the knuckles, so that one set will take the weight of a right-handdoor and the other set take the weight of a left-hand door.

The middle knuckle 4, Figs. 1 and 2, is counterbored or recessed at eachend, so as toleave a knuckle-shell 5, giving the knuckle the sameexterior appearance as an ordinary knuckle without any antifrictiondevices. The central hole through this knuckle is considerably largerthan the diameterof the pintle of the hinge. In the bottom of eachcounterbored recess I place a disk 6, which constitutes one-half of theindependent casing of the balls 7 to bear upon, which disk should behardened to prevent undue wear. I prefer to make it with flat faces; butthis is not essential. A series of balls '7 are placed on this disk, anda second disk or half-casing S is placed over said balls, the said disk8 having its central hole countersunk, as shown. I then place a sleeveor tube 9 through all the disks in the knuckle 4, one end of the sleevebeing previously headed, (preferably as at 10,) and then turn over orhead the other end of said sleeve, as at its lower end 11, Fig. 2. Inthe preferred form and as shown the diameter of the inner bore of thesleeve is large enough to receive the pintle without binding thereon,and the hole in the knuckle is large enough not to bind on the sleeve.The outer disks 8 are slightly smaller than the counterbore .or innerdiameter of the knuckle-shell 5, while the hole in the inner disks 6 isslightly larger than the diameter of the sleeve, so as to leave theouter disk 8 and sleeve 9 free to rotate together as the weight istransmitted from the opposing end of a companion knuckle upon either oneof said outer disks. 1 While I prefer to connect the bearing disks orcasings of two sets of balls at the opposite ends of two knuckles and tohave the connecting-sleeve revolve with the outer disks or casings, Imay sometimes employ the construction illustrated in Fig. 3, in whichthe knuckle 4 is counterbored the same as be fore to form theknuckle-shell 5 at one or both ends of the knuckle, the balls 7,together .with the inner and outer disks 6 8, being the same as beforedescribed. A headed sleeve 9 is then forced into the central hole of theknuckle with sufficient force to hold it in place. In this constructionthe hole in the center of the outer disk should be large enough topermit said disks to revolve freely while the sleeve is stationary! Thesame construction 'may, if desired, be applied to the other end of thesame knuckle.

By myimprovelnent I connect the bearingdisks or ball-casings at theopposite ends of one knuckle by means of a sleeve, so that they become apermanent part of the hinge. I also house the said disks or ball-casingswithin the end orends of the knuckle, where they are protected andconcealed.

I claim as my invention 1. In an antifriction-hinge the combination ofone knuckle with a set of balls and a pair of ball-casings at each endof said knuckle, and a sleeve extending through the ball-casings of bothsets of said antifriciion devices, substantially as described.

2. In airantifriction-hinge, the knucklev counter-bored to form aknuckle-shell at one 9 end, in combination with the two disks and setofballs inclosed within said shell, and

means for holding said disks in place and permitting the outer one torotate, substantially as described.

3. In an antifriction-hinge the knuckle 4 having the knuckle-shell 5 ateach end thereof, the outer and inner disks and balls within each ofsaid shells and the sleeve connecting the said outer disks,substantially as described.

l. In an antifriction-hinge, the knuckle, counterbored to form aprotecting and concealing knuckle-shell at one end, in combination withthe two ball-casings and set of balls inclosed thereby, the outer one ofthe said casings being loosely fitted and lying rotatably within thesaid protecting and concealing shell, substantially as described.

WILLIAM H. HART.

Witnesses:

R. F. HUDSON, E. A. MOORE.

